I Think God Paints Like Bob Ross – October 2, 2017

I know I’m telling off on my age right here, but I remember growing up, I would wake up on Saturdays and watch the Bob Ross painting show.

If you’ve ever seen Bob Ross paint you know how he worked. For the first 25 minutes, his canvas looked like a mess. He would take different colors and paint abstract shapes that didn’t look like anything, but all of the sudden he would take a small brush or his finger, and with one little stroke, the painting would all come together. A green mess with one small addition would turn into a beautiful forest, or a gray blob became a breathtaking mountain, and you would see the picture crystal clear. I think God paints like Bob Ross.

Very few times in my life have I been able to recognize God’s work in progress, and at the moment, the instruction of God seemed trivial or too difficult. My problem is I want to see the finished product before I agree to participate, but that’s not the way God works. If I decide to take the first step and trust him, by the time He is finished, He will produce something beautiful. It’s always obvious looking back, but frightening in the moment.

“Faith is believing in advance what will only make sense in reverse” – Phillip Yancey

The Bible is filled with masterpieces, men, and women whose canvas took a lifetime to complete. To an appraiser, the first 80 years of Moses’s life looked more like dogs playing poker than the Mona Lisa, but God wasn’t finished. Joseph had to wait 22 years for his paint to dry. Betrayal and abandonment were just some of the almighty’s color choices, and at each fork in the road Joseph had to recommit to God’s path even when it wasn’t clear what He was up to.

In full disclosure, I’m not a painter. I’m the guy who stares at paintings and acts like he understands the meaning behind them, but once I started thinking about God as an artist and my life as a canvas, my perspective changed. I began to reread stories I had read a hundred times only, this time, I envisioned God the artist moving his brush. What if every verse of hopelessness, darkness, and doubt is just God using dark colors to add to his masterpiece? What if every verse of blessing and victory are bright colors being splashed onto the canvas of your life?

It’s frustrating to feel like God has forgotten about you or your life is going nowhere, especially if you have obeyed God, but now feel like you made the wrong choice. Maybe you forgave someone who hurt you, and tried to rebuild a relationship but it’s not getting any better, and only causing more pain in your life. Maybe you started giving generously, but you still haven’t experienced miraculous intervention in your finances. We all know what it feels like to feel like a mess, but you’re not a mess, you’re just a work of art “in progress.” When God is finished with his masterpiece and you get to see the finished product you will be reminded again that no one paints a better picture than God. His work is flawless, and His timing is impeccable.